New Zealand cricketer sets new First-Class record with five wickets in five balls

[p]Brett Randell achieved the feat bowling for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/central-stags/8hARmSL6/"]Central Districts[/a] against Northern Districts on day two of a Plunket Shield four-day match in front of a sparse crowd at Napier's McLean Park.[/p][p]Records held by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians show the feat hasn't been achieved since what it and many other historians recognise as the first documented first class match, played in 1772.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/ireland/GEmG3lXa/"]Ireland[/a] international [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/campher-curtis/tp5XUSB7/"]Curtis Campher[/a] took five wickets in five balls in a domestic Twenty20 match last year, becoming the first player to do so in a professional game.[/p][p]Randell's right-arm seamers scythed through the ND top order.[/p][embed guid="64f74737-d58d-45b8-945b-e15c5fba9352" url="https://x.com/exceedingxpuns/status/2030457773054710104" social-type="twitter" /][p]The 30-year-old clean bowled Henry Cooper with the final delivery of his second over before removing fellow-opener and former [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/new-zealand/G6PWlrQB/"]New Zealand[/a] Test batsman [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/raval-jeet/d2kdJiys/"]Jeet Raval[/a] at the start of his third over.[/p][p]Three more wickets fell from successive balls, including the record-breaking delivery, when international all-rounder Kristian Clarke was bowled.[/p][p]Randell took two further wickets in his following over as ND were skittled for 82 in response to CD's 373.[/p][p]Randell claimed 7-25, his best figures in a 38-match first class career that spans nine years.[/p][p]"[b]I am pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it ⁠was like ​a pinch-me moment,[/b]" Randell said.[/p][p]"I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the ‌same area and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things - trying to put the ball in the same area.[/p][p]"[b]It gets drummed into us a lot that we don't want to go searching for wickets, so I ‌was trying to just keep ​bowling the same ball, and our 'Plan ‌A' that we had talked about, and it came off.[/b]"[/p]